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Sometimes fevered health care debate continues

27 Dec 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

During the Sunday, January 3 Mass celebrating the Epiphany of the Lord, we hear the psalmist praise the Lord as the one who "shall rescue the poor when he cries out, and the afflicted when he has no one to help him." President Obama campaigned on a promise to make health care more affordable and accessible to millions who currently lack the resources to obtain it. He and the Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress have spent much of the past year struggling to fulfill that promise amidst an atmosphere of often bitter partisanship. At year end they appeared close to a victory, but the final outcome is still uncertain. Health care reform was also at or near the top of lists of religion stories of the year, in part because of controversies over abortion and the role the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other faith groups played in shaping the debate. Some accused religious leaders of stepping too far into partisan politics, while others defended the practice to be in keeping with the role of moral leadership.

barack obama abortion health care reform united states conference of catholic bishops
Shrinking economy leads to growing hunger

07 Feb 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The gospel this Sunday describes the abundance of fish caught by the disciples, whose “nets were tearing” from the weight. Many a hungry American would gladly accept a meal made from that catch, according to a report released Tuesday. The numbers receiving emergency food from the largest hunger-relief charity and its partners rose 46 percent from 2005 to 2009. Feeding America, which conducted the survey, said 37 million people, including 14 million children, need emergency food aid--more than 10 percent of the U.S. population. That compares to 25.3 million people in 2005, when the group released its last quadrennial study. It based the new figure on 61,000 interviews and 37,000 surveys of local charitable agencies. “The findings of this study are nothing short of tragic,” said Feeding America chief executive Vicki Escarra. “We have to find a way to feed people in the land of plenty.” The United States is the world’s top corn and soybeans exporter as well as a major beef exporter. Feeding America reported last September that unemployment has played a major role in the rising demand for emergency food. “This is a real challenge for America,” said Dennis Smith, director of the Northern Illinois Food Bank. “Hunger has become almost epidemic in this country.” The study also found that black and Hispanic Americans have been disproportionately affected by hunger. Although each group makes up around 15 percent of the U.S. population, the report found that black Americans account for 34 percent of people seeking food and Hispanics 21 percent. President Barack Obama has set a target of ending child hunger by 2015. Last year he backed a $1 billion annual increase in school lunch and other child nutrition programs. Source: An article by Nick Carey for Reuters

Hunger feeding america vicki escarra hispanic americans child hunger dennis smith northern illinois food bank african americans united states recession food aid
Get a move on, kids

14 Feb 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Christ raised from the dead is “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep,” we hear in this Sunday’s reading from 1 Corinthians. The large number of children more prone to junk food than fresh fruit and to fall asleep on the couch instead of going for a walk is leading to an epidemic of childhood obesity. Government fitness programs have thus far failed to turn the tide. Now First Lady Michelle Obama will try her hand at it. President Dwight D. Eisenhower tried to motivate kids to shape up when he created the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports in 1956. It’s been a losing battle ever since. Childhood obesity has been on the rise in recent decades, with 17 percent of children considered obese and about one in three of all children overweight. “Efforts like the president’s council have been overwhelmed over the years by trends in society that push kids in the other direction,” said Russell Pate, a professor of exercise science at the University of South Carolina. He cited a “triple whammy”--the advent of video games, the reliance on cars to get around, and the rise of a high-fat, fast-food diet--that undermines a healthy lifestyle for kids. In announcing her “Let’s Move” campaign Tuesday, Michelle Obama made clear that physical fitness is key to what she’s trying to do and that there is a role for the Eisenhower-era fitness council. Besides getting kids to exercise, the campaign aims to help parents and schools make better food choices and also healthy food more available and affordable. More than obesity is at stake, according to a new study. Kids drawn to sweeter-than-cola drinks are also more likely to have a family history of alcoholism and depressive symptoms. “We know that sweet taste is rewarding to all kids and makes them feel good,” said lead researcher Julie Mennella, a developmental psychobiologist at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. “In addition, certain groups of children may be especially attracted to intense sweetness due to their underlying biology.” The results don’t mean a child who likes ultra-sweetened foods will become an alcoholic. They only suggest a link between sweet preference and family members with alcoholism. “At this point, we don’t know whether this higher ‘bliss point’ for sweets is a marker for later alcohol use,” Mennella said. Source: Jeanna Bryner for LiveScience.com and Frederic J. Frommer for the Associated Press

Children let’s move sweetness julie mennella physical fitness michelle obama childhood obesity united states Alcoholism russell pate
Unsettling developments in U.S.-Israeli relations

21 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Mount of Olives, where in this Sunday's gospel Jesus challenges the one "who is without sin" to cast the first stone, is located on a ridge overlooking Jerusalem. This week the city of Jerusalem--sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike--is front and center to a deepening diplomatic crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations.The conflict erupted last week after Israel announced during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that it would build 1,600 apartments for Jews in disputed east Jerusalem, the sector of the city Palestinians claim for a future capital.The Obama administration, fuming over what it called "insulting" Israeli conduct, has demanded that Israel call off the project. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, however, said such demands are "unreasonable" and predicted the row with the U.S. would blow over, saying neither side had an interest in escalation.But Washington notified Israel early Tuesday that U.S. envoy George Mitchell had put off a trip to the region indefinitely. Mitchell had planned on coming to wrap up preparations for relaunching Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Now it is not clear when the indirect talks will begin.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized for the timing of the project's approval, but he has not said it would be canceled. On Wednesday he praised President Obama and spoke by telephone with Biden. But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cast more doubts on prospects for indirect peace talks with Israel soon, reaffirming a demand it first halt all settlement construction.In the heaviest clashes in the city in months, scores of Palestinians this week hurled rocks at police and set tires and garbage bins ablaze across the holy city's volatile eastern sector where the construction is planned. Source: Articles by Jeffrey Heller for Reuters, Andrew Lee Butters for TIME, and Amy Teibel for the Associated Press

israel diplomatic relations east jerusalem peace talks george mitchell settlements joe biden benjamin netanyahu mahmoud abbas united states jerusalem palestinians avigdor lieberman
Lively Catholic debate over health-care bill abortion provisions

21 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Differences over complex questions is nothing new to religious groups, as we see in the Sunday gospel's debate between Jesus and Jewish religious leaders about the woman caught in adultery. Leaders of Catholic women's orders representing 59,000 nuns sent lawmakers a letter Wednesday urging them to pass the Senate health-care bill. The measure contains abortion funding restrictions that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said don't go far enough."Despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions," said the letter signed by 60 leaders of women's religious orders. "It will uphold longstanding conscience protections and it will make historic new investments . . . in support of pregnant women. This is the real pro-life stance, and we as Catholics are all for it."The USCCB and the National Right to Life Committee have denounced the bill as containing a backdoor subsidy for abortion. But the nuns and the Catholic Health Association--representing some 600 hospitals--said restrictions in the Senate bill would still prevent taxpayer funding for abortion, although the legal mechanism for doing so is different from what the bishops prefer."This is politics; this isn't a question of faith and morals," said Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a national Catholic social activism lobby. "We are the ones who work every day with people who are suffering because they don't have health care. We cannot turn our backs on them, so for us, health care reform is a faith-based response to human need." Source: An article by Erica Werner for the Associated Press

abortion funding usccb national right to life committee catholic health association simone campbell network united states conference of catholic bishops religious orders health care reform abortion nuns
Are Latino immigrants saying adios to religion?

21 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Saint Paul's wish is "that I may gain Christ and be found in him," we hear in this Sunday's second reading. While the Catholic Church in the U.S. has gained membership thanks to Latino population growth over the past two decades, a new analysis suggests a growing number eventually find themselves worshiping elsewhere or not worshiping at all.A report released Wednesday by researchers at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut found Latino religious identification increasingly diverse and more "Americanized." The analysis, based on data from the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, compared responses to phone surveys in 1990 and 2008 conducted in English and Spanish."What you see is growing diversity--away from Catholicism and splitting between those who join evangelical or Protestant groups or no religion," said report coauthor Barry Kosmin, a sociologist and director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College.While the Catholic Church in the U.S. added an estimated 11 million adults between 1990 to 2008, including 9 million Latinos, and while the Latino percentage of the total Catholic population rose from 20 to 32 percent in the same period, those who claimed "no religion" rose from fewer than 1 million (6 percent of U.S. Latinos) in 1990 to nearly 4 million (12 percent of Latinos) in 2008, the study found."As Latinos or any other ethnic group assimilates to American culture, they pick up the values of the broader American culture and are somewhat less likely to identify with the religious identification, or any other identification, that marked their parents or grandparents," said Mary Gautier, a senior researcher at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.The new data send a clear message, said Father Allan Figueroa Deck, S.J., executive director of the USCCB Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church. "The biggest challenge the Catholic Church faces is the movement of Latino people not to other religions but rather to a secular way of life in which religion is no longer very important," he said. "We really need to ask ourselves why that is and what response the church can develop for this challenge." Source: An article by Sharon Jayson for USA TODAY

religion mary gautier religious affiliation catholic church latinos united states barry kosmin trinity college american religious identification survey allan figueroa deck
Water, water everywhere a problem

21 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink," says the Lord in this Sunday's reading from the Book of Isaiah. Repairs and upgrades to the nation's aging water and sewer systems--some dating to the Civil War--have been neglected for so long that, on average, a significant water line bursts somewhere in the U.S every two minutes.When the pipes break they damage streets and homes and allow sewage to seep into drinking water supplies. But the problem, water utility officials said, is that citizens have grown accustomed to inexpensive water delivery and sewage disposal, and that has resulted in a lack of adequate funding to maintain the systems that make those services possible."People pay more for their cell phones and cable television than for water," said George Hawkins, who heads the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority. "You can go a day without a phone or T.V. You can't go a day without water.""We're relying on water systems built by our great-grandparents, and no one wants to pay for the decades we've spent ignoring them," said Jeffrey K. Griffiths, a professor at Tufts University and a member of the Environmental Protection Agency's National Drinking Water Advisory Council. Source: Articles by Charles Duhigg for the New York Times and Andrew Nusca for SmartPlanet.com

Water united states water supply drinking water sewage george hawkins jeffrey k griffiths
Volunteer spirit explodes

28 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Christ "emptied himself" to serve the needs of humanity, says this Sunday's reading from the Letter to the Philippians. An increasing number of Americans are finding a way to serve others, in what one community service spokesperson calls a "compassion boom." According to a recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1.5 million more Americans volunteered between September 2008 and September 2009 than in the previous year. Approximately 63.4 million people, or 26.8 percent of the population, volunteered through or for an organization in 2009. "In this time of economic distress, the need for service and volunteering is more critical today than ever before, and Americans are responding," said Stephen Goldsmith, board chair of the Corporation for National and Community Service. "We're seeing a compassion boom across this country, where communities are banding together and neighbors are reaching out in service to others." Source: A press release from NationalService.gov

volunteers recession united states volunteering stephen goldsmith volunteer service
Some not thrilled offshore to be drilled

04 Apr 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In John's gospel account of the empty tomb this Easter Sunday, it is Mary of Magdala who announces the surprising news. President Barack Obama caught some environmentalists and other supporters by surprise Wednesday when he announced his support for offshore drilling for oil and natural gas in regions of the East Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska. Obama's move modifies a two-decade ban and allows drilling from Delaware to central Florida, plus the northern waters of Alaska, and exploration could begin 50 miles off the coast of Virginia by 2012. The president also wants Congress to lift a drilling ban in the oil-rich eastern Gulf of Mexico, 125 miles from Florida beaches. Still off-limits is the entire Pacific seaboard. And in a nod to conservation, Obama canceled oil exploration in Alaska's Bristol Bay, deeming the area a national treasure. Even with a push for cleaner energy sources and efficient cars and the need to protect ecosystems and coastal tourism, the nation still needs more oil, Obama said. "The answer is not drilling everywhere all the time," Obama said at Andrews Air Force Base. "But the answer is not, also, for us to ignore the fact that we are going to need vital energy sources to maintain our economic growth and our security." Source: Articles by Philip Elliott and Ben Feller for the Associated Press

barack obama united states offshore drilling oil
Is there a doctor in the house?

25 Apr 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday's gospel Jesus promises to his followers that he will "give them eternal life." In the meantime medical doctors do what they can to keep our earthly lives as healthy as possible. But with the ranks of the newly insured expanding as a result of the new healthcare law, experts warn that the U.S. will soon face a severe shortage of doctors. At current graduation and training rates the nation could face a shortfall of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. That shortage is predicted despite a push by teaching hospitals and medical schools to boost the number of U.S. doctors, which now totals about 954,000. The greatest demand will be for primary-care physicians. These general practitioners, internists, family physicians, and pediatricians will have a larger role under the new law, coordinating care for each patient. A shortage could lead to more limited access to health care and longer wait times for patients. The U.S. has 352,908 primary-care doctors now and the college association estimates that 45,000 more will be needed by 2020. But the number of medical school students entering family medicine fell more than a quarter between 2002 and 2007, largely because of the lower pay primary-care doctors receive relative to specialists. Proponents of the new healthcare law say it does attempt to address the physician shortage. The law offers sweeteners to encourage more people to enter medical professions and a 10-percent Medicare pay boost for primary-care doctors. But medical colleges and hospitals warn that these efforts will hit a big bottleneck: A shortage of medical resident positions. The residency is the minimum three-year period when medical school graduates train in hospitals and clinics. While doctors trained in other countries could theoretically help the primary-care shortage, they hit the same obstacle with resident slots because they must still complete a U.S. residency in order to get a license to practice medicine independently in the U.S. "It will probably take 10 years to even make a dent into the number of doctors that we need out there," said Atul Grover, the AAMC's chief advocacy officer. Source: An article by Susanne Sataline and Shirley S. Wang for the Wall Street Journal

united states doctors shortage association of american medical colleges primary care physicians medical residency atul grover

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